Hacking Do you always need more than double the size of a file to install a cia?

Arsenaltengu

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as in, for example I have 4 gigs free on my SD, and the cia is 3 gigs, would I need 6 for it to be installed?

I read that after installation you can delete the cia and was wondering if that means that after installation it counts effectively as a duplicate.
 
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Unless installing over a network, yes.

But if you have 4GB free with the 3GB .cia on the SD card, I don't see the problem.
 

Arsenaltengu

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Unless installing over a network, yes.

But if you have 4GB free with the 3GB .cia on the SD card, I don't see the problem.

If installation creates a duplicate, it would mean that my 3gb cia would need 6 gigs of space as it now contains the original cia installer and the actual ap that was installed in EmuNand, at least that is how I understand this.

I ask this because I tried a 2 gig file in the SD that comes with the system and it did nto work, while a tiny file of about 20 megs did work, so I was thinking that the size woudl be the problem.
 

gkoelho

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Yes, cia is installed somewhere i dont know really, but u can delete the files on your root of the sd after installation
 

ultramario1998

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yeah. CIAs are installed to your nand, which means that the cia gets copied, hence the need for double space. you can freely delete the initial cia once it's done installing
 

samiam144

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To be more specific, the game is installed to the "Nintendo 3DS" folder on your SD card. So after installation, the game will have taken another X GB of space, and you can delete the .cia afterwards since it is already "installed" into the Nintendo 3DS folder and "registered" in the 3DS nand (or Emunand)
 

Jayro

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Are CIA files simply MOVED to NAND, or extracted/installed to NAND? Like, does the 3DS run the CIA file itself, like a 3DS ROM? Or does it unpack it in the filesystem?
 

Arubaro

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Are CIA files simply MOVED to NAND, or extracted/installed to NAND? Like, does the 3DS run the CIA file itself, like a 3DS ROM? Or does it unpack it in the filesystem?
Putting it simple, the .cia is like an .exe installer. Once you install it, you can delete it.
 

Deleted member 373223

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Putting it simple, the .cia is like an .exe installer. Once you install it, you can delete it.
to make understand people how funky cia works and why a cia is an installer (not reffering to you, just explaining people why you are right):
it downloads the file that should be in the "nintendo 3ds" (000001... 0000002...)
it packs them into a .cia and give it a title id and a unique id and all the information needed.
you put the .cia on the sd card.
you use FBI to install the .cia
the .cia file get installed in the Nintendo 3ds folder and the files that will be findable will be (000001... 000002...)
 

Jayro

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to make understand people how funky cia works and why a cia is an installer (not reffering to you, just explaining people why you are right):
it downloads the file that should be in the "nintendo 3ds" (000001... 0000002...)
it packs them into a .cia and give it a title id and a unique id and all the information needed.
you put the .cia on the sd card.
you use FBI to install the .cia
the .cia file get installed in the Nintendo 3ds folder and the files that will be findable will be (000001... 000002...)
Thank you, I finally understand how a .cia file works now. :)
 

AmandaRose

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To put is in a more understandable way it's basically like how you download a zip file on Windows then have to extract it once done you still have the zip file and the extracted file on your hard drive but are then free to delete the zip it's exactly the same for cia files on 3ds once you install them you can delete them
 
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Arsenaltengu

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you really just gotta go get a 16-32 gb sd card and transfer your emunand.

Yeah I was just about to go out and buy a bigger card, but I was wondering if I needed to do something to transfer all my stuff to the new one or if its just a copy and paste job.

Probably not as simple as that, but I should ask just in case.
 

Clydefrosch

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Yeah I was just about to go out and buy a bigger card, but I was wondering if I needed to do something to transfer all my stuff to the new one or if its just a copy and paste job.

Probably not as simple as that, but I should ask just in case.

theres a few steps, nothing hard really, but you will need more than 1gb of free space on your current sd for the emunand backup. (delete a few games if you have to, you can always install them again)

Not sure what your current setup is, but I assume you use ctrbootmanager?
if so, do you already have an entry to get into homebrew loader from there? (it doesnt work if you enter homebrew loader from emunand)
if neither, how does your startup work right now?


Assuming you can enter homebrew loader at startup already:

Download emunand9 homebrew, put it in the 3ds folder of your sd card.
Enter homebrew loader
Start emunand9
Go into Emunand manager Options and select 'dump emunand to emunand.bin'
afterwards, press select to unmount your old sd and put it in your pc
copy all files from old sd to a new folder on your pc

while its copying on your pc, put new and big sd in 3ds
press b and return to the first menu of emunand9.
select 'complete emunand setup' and follow instructions on screen
once thats done, unmount new sd by pressing select again

put new sd into pc (if its already done copying files from the old sd, otherwise, wait till its finished)
Copy all your old sd's files to the new sd which should include a file called emunand.bin.
put in new sd into 3ds again, hit b and go back to emunand manager options.
'clone emunand.bin to emunand'

afterwards, turn off the 3ds, start it up like normally. you can also remove emunand.bin from your sd now (but keep it on your pc for safekeeping)
 

Arsenaltengu

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Thank you, I will use your guide when I get the bigger SD, for the time being I sent the cia trough wirless with the socketpunch and FBI and it worked flawlessly.

Thank you so much for everyones contribution to this topic in such a shhort timespan.
 

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